Stay
by DazeyRains
Summary: Post MJ. Effie visits her old team but when her altered agenda throws Haymitch into a tissy, it's about time all the right questions got asked. Total mussy angsty fluff. Hayffie romance x


Returning from the market to find his door unlocked, his dirty boots where he hadn't left them and his laundry folded into a neat pile upon the table at the foot of the stairs, could only mean one thing.

He could have been annoyed but he was used to these surprise and un regular visits and when he smelt scent of coffee and the bacon drafting in through the kitchen area, he felt the familiar yet unwelcomed warmth growing in his belly.

It was becoming nice. It was becoming really nice to see her when he did.

"Still no call in advance, sweetheart?"

"Still haven't fixed your phone, dear?" she replied. A perfect touché response that made him laugh.

"One of these days I won't be home"

"Oh? And where might you be?"

"A nice holiday...? Somewhere sunny, sea air"

Effie threw a look over her shoulder and guffawed

"You? On holiday? I can't imagine you spread out on a sun lounger, Haymitch, sipping margaritas by the pool"

"Oh yeah? How do you imagine me? Think about me often do you?" He teased, coming up behind her as she busied herself in his kitchen and slipping his hands about her waist.

She responded by turning into him seductively, then pushing a hot cup of coffee under his nose.

"Hands. Of this coffee ends up on your head"

He laughed, held his hands up and backed off.

They did this often. Well, as often as she visited. They'd flirt and tease and jest and joke. She'd breeze in like the whirlwind that she was and disappear just as quick. Leaving his home tidy, his belly full and an emptiness in his chest that he swore, every time she arrived next, he would address...

And yet here she was again. Breezing in, and breezing out and his mouth stayed well and truly closed.

"I'm sorry it's a brief visit today but I'll come by again tomorrow and you can fill me in about all the wonderful things you've been up to this month, ok?"

"You're not staying for dinner?" He asked, surprised. She always stayed for dinner.

She'd arrive in the mornings and spend breakfast with the kids and the kids kids, then her and Katniss would wander into the market for fresh bread, then Katniss would head home and Effie would knock or let herself in to Haymitchs, if he was still out in the fields. She'd put on the fresh coffee, start the stew, busy herself while the stew cooked then wait for him to come back and set the table and prep the fire. Then they would catch up, reminisce, laugh, argue, well, bicker but always always laugh again afterwards. She'd thanks him for the company, he's thank her for the food and then she would spend the night back with the Mellarks until her car arrived at 7 the next morning to take her back to the station.

It was the same, every time.

He enjoyed it being the same. He enjoyed catching up and bickering like old times. He enjoyed sitting by the fire and watching how the flickering flames made her eyes sparkle, enjoyed watching the same strands of her wild curly hair fall across her face when she turned away to laugh at his jokes. He enjoyed how she blushed when he complemented or flirted with her, enjoyed the light song of her voice and how it changed to a low hum whenever she talked about something serious.

She didn't visit often enough, and until now, he hadn't felt just how much he enjoyed it when she did.

"Afraid not, I'm sorry. But I'll come by and have breakfast in the morning and catch a later train"

It wasn't good enough. His sulk was ominous. It surprised her a little so she pandered to it.

"Oh Haymitch. Will you miss me?"

She looked into his eyes smiling and for a heart beat, had the dreaded feeling he was about to say yes.

Haymitch didn't say things like that.

Feelings like that were unspoken.

But for that tiny second she had caught him off guard, seen the disappointment in his eyes...

Or had she?

"No, I just means I can skip the usual long dinner and get an early night. Got to head out first thing, we're planting fresh crop tomorrow so, we need all hands on deck."

The tiny second was gone, gone, gone.

"Oh, right. Ok. So, no breakfast hmm?"

He moved past her, seemingly flustered

"Ah no, sorry, gotta be up there early so I'll just eat when I'm up there"

She nodded

"Great. Well. I'll leave you to it" clapping her hands together and pushing the strands of her hair out of her face.

He loitered by the kitchen door, kicking himself for being so cruel. Of course he wanted to see her for breakfast before she left. He didn't have to be up early! They weren't planting the crops til next week, why did he say that?

Think, think Of something to say, he urged himself, watching her button up her coat.

She wasn't making quick of it, maybe she was holding back too.

"So...ah...you Just have plans with the kids tonight then hmm?" He asked casually, trying to soften the air in the room.

"Ah, no actually. I..."

She was blushing. He could see it, what wasn't she saying

"What?" Haymitch laughed. It always cheered him up to see her blush like that. It was adorable...no...It was sexy as hell. "You got like a date or something?"

Her head shot up, her smile brightened.

Any other reason for that smile would have made Haymitch a very happy man. But not this.

"Oh...you do..."

"His name is Lister, he was friends with Peetas father" she beamed, oblivious to the arrow that just punctured Haymitchs chest "Peeta introduced us a few months ago and he came to the Captiol last week and so I thought I'd return the gesture"

She was here for him?

She thought it was concern on his face. It wasn't all together safe for her as an individual yet to be gallivanting around district 12 willy nilly. There were still folk hiding in the shadows who would kill a person like her, a Captiol, if they had the chance.

She took his arm

"Don't make that face" she smiled sweetly "He's lovely, truly. Peeta sung his praises before we met and when he came to see me he was a true gentleman. I'll be fine, I promise"

She patted his arm and started to place on her gloves.

He was jealous. It was as real a feeling as any. Jealous and angry.

This was their time, theirs! His and hers, and now someone else was taking it. Sharing those moments with her instead of him.

"What's the matter" she asked and Haymitch looked up to see her staring at him full of concern. The look on his face must have been all too telling. He had to get out of this one.

"You barely visit as it is and now when you do, you treat Katniss and Peetas like a hotel for the night so you can swan off into the night like some harlot on vacation?"

His words literally knocked her backwards

"Excuse me!?" She blinked fast, shunned and disgusted not only by his words but in the tone in which he threw them at her.

"It's fine for me, come and go as you please as far as I'm concerned, it's not like we're the best of friends so what do I care, but don't drag Katniss and Peeta into your sordid habbits, have some decency, stay at the Inn in town..."

She couldn't believe it. Not one single word coming out of his mouth was making any sense. Not one single word was coming from Haymitch. Not the Haymitch that she knew.

"It was Peeta and Katniss that introduced us"

"Yeah and I bet you wasted no time in getting your claws into him huh?"

And there it was. The penny dropped. Effie eyed him like a cat eyeing up a cornered mouse.

"He rich or something? Got a big house and a stack of money waiting for you has he?"

"Oh yes..." She replied sinfully, holding her head up high.

If he wanted to play this game again then play they would.

Effie was done. Sick and tired of his hot and cold behaviour. The same it had been for years let alone the past few months. He'd flirt and he'd tease and he'd lure her in only to push her away at the last moment, every time. And now this. Accusing her of being a whore because for once, she was enjoying the affections of a man who had the courage to at least show them.

"In fact he's very rich, handsomely so. Good looking too" she said with a cruel cocked grin. "But of course only *you* would think that's the only reason a woman like me would be caught dead dating a man like that, a district man, a working man!"

He'd been cruel, unjustly so and he knew it. He hung his head in shame.

"You want to know the real reason I'm seeing him again Haymtich? Hmm?" She asked him, but Haymitch gave no reply.

"Its because he asked. And I dare say it's a damn sight more than you have ever done"

Turing on her heel she marched to the front door but he caught her there, grabbing her arm and spinning her around.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, pressing her back against the closed door

"What do you think it means?!" She fired off "You never ask me to come here. I come because I want to, because I- because I need to. I have to see you Haymitch, god forbid I go crazy if I don't! If I don't know that you're ok, that your healthy and happy and taking care of yourself. I come because I care about you but you never ask. You never ask me to come here!"

"You know I don't need to ask you to come here, you know you're always welcome here Effie, anytime. I've never asked you to come because I've never needed to"

"No, I know... I know that" she replied, with tears swelling in her eyes. He was right. She'd come even if he told her not too, she'd come anyway.

"Then why are you getting upset?"

"Because..." She said quietly, embarrassed and mad at herself for letting it out. But it was time. She couldn't do it anymore. The candle lit dinners, the flirting, the teasing, the long talks in front of the fire, watching his walls crumble before her eyes when he slowly started to trust and open up to her more and more, getting that tingling feeling down her spine every time he moved to touch her face to comb the fallen hair out of her eyes and the moments! Oh, the moments when he would lean in close, close enough that she would feel his breath at her lips, close enough that he could hear her heart beating out of her chest in longing for him to just ask that one question!

"Because...you've never once asked me to stay"

She pushed him away, slipping out of the door and into the snow outside whilst he processed her words.

She'd never see him again. She couldn't see him again, not now, not after the truth. She'd let her wall down and showed him everything and now, she couldn't ever go back to being just friends.

Her heeled feet were cold and wet as she trudged through the thick snow, holding onto the soft glow of the Mellarks porch light ahead so that her tears wouldn't fall. She almost didn't feel the strong hand pulling her to a stop and spinning her around, but boy did she feel his kiss.

Haymitch pulled her hard against him, forcing his mouth against hers in a hungry kiss. His nose was cold against hers but his tongue was hot, like a hot knife into butter as hers met his in the sweet tirade. She gasped desperately for air between each stroke, neither of them letting up. This was everything she wanted. All of visits, the chatter and the touches, the looks and the longing, it was all supposed to lead to this and now it had.

She parted them momentarily, resting her forehead against his to catch her breath.

"I want you to stay" Haymitch breathed, drawing his hands around her waist to the small of her back, drawing her in. "I'm asking you to stay"

And as the snow fell around them like silent rain, she forgot about the cold in her feet, as he filled up the emptiness in his chest.

"Yes, Haymitch" she grinned, as their moment turned into a future memory. "Yes I'll stay"


End file.
